Various Artists: Angel-Headed Hipster – Artists get it on for Marc Bolan

Kesha, Nick Cave, Peaches, Marc Almond among those covering classic T.Rex tunes

AngelHeaded Hipster - the Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex
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Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Pop
Label: BMG

Very few British pop/rock stars flipped a creative coin so successfully as Marc Bolan. From channelling an authentic hippie aesthetic with albums such as My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair . . . But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows to become glitzy pioneers of bubblegum glam-rock (via which genre they set fire to the UK charts from 1970-'73 with 11 Top 10 hit singles), Bolan and T. Rex shifted pop culture by a degree or three, influencing many along the way.

By 1974, Bolan would never again enter the UK Top 10, and by autumn of 1077, at the age of 29, he was dead. It’s coming up to 50 years since the release of T.Rex’s first smasheroonie – Ride a White Swan – and, as well as the usual anniversary tributes, there is also this collection, a final work of curation from producer Hal Willner, who died earlier this year.

And what a selection we have here. Many songs are intuitively delivered (Children of the Revolution/Kesha, Cosmic Dancer/Nick Cave, Rock On/Perry Farrell, The Leopards/Gavin Friday, Solid Gold, Easy Action/Peaches and Teenage Dream/Marc Almond), some are not (Life's a Gas/Lucinda Williams, Planet Queen/Todd Rundgren), and two are, quite inexplicably, missing (Hot Love, Telegram Sam).

What the hell – get it on, bang your gong, regardless.

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in popular culture